Smiling, squeezing her mum's hand, nodding and shaking her head to communicate yes or no, and recognising familiar visitors are all signs of progress for the 10-year-old who has suffered a significant brain injury.
More recently, her mother, Jane Hutton, said Shania had started painting, giving the thumbs-up to signify approval, and learning to stand up with the use of a walking frame.
"Considering when she first woke up, her eyes just rolled back in her head and they said she might stay that way, she's come a long way.
"They might seem like little things, but they are huge in Shania's world."
The journey has been long and arduous to get to this point. But the battle for recovery from her major head injury is only just beginning, Mrs Hutton said.
Shania was struck by a car on December 22 in Riselaw Rd, Calton Hill, only metres from her home, while on her way to buy lollies at the local shop.
In the hours following the accident, her heart stopped twice, and was restarted by Dunedin Hospital doctors.
She also had three operations, one to open two bone flaps from her skull to allow her brain to swell without causing too much damage, and two to repair a broken femur.
She was also put on life support after she inhaled stomach bile, severely damaging her lungs. For the first week and a-half after the accident, Shania was in an induced coma.
While the tracheotomy tube was removed from her neck last week, a feeding tube remains in her stomach.
Shania and her mother will travel today to the Wilson Centre in Auckland, where she will be assessed for rehabilitation needs before having physical and speech therapy.
Unfortunately, some of the costs involved in staying by Shania's bedside in Auckland, were not covered by ACC, Mrs Hutton said.
So a Wild Food Buffet will be held at the Fitzroy Hotel on March 31 to raise funds for the Hutton family.
Mrs Hutton said their stay in Auckland could take between three months and two years.
"But the good news is, once Shania leaves the Wilson Centre, she'll be able to go home.
"That's the best news ever.
"I asked her yesterday if she wanted to go home and she nodded."
Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, of Dunedin, said investigations into the accident were now complete and the laying of charges was "imminent".
He said the charges had to go through a "rigorous process" to ensure they were appropriate and the evidence for laying them was sufficient.
People wishing to donate funds for Shania Hutton's recovery can give money at Kiwibank branches.
